Quest for the Murderer pt. 6: beneath the tide

… have dealings with specters who require servitude and return power. Magicians enthralled to such cannot be put to rest, no matter the mortal hurts inflicted upon them; either the Specter must be overcome or else the aegis which holds the thrall’s heart must be broken. The magician’s life ends when the heart is wrested and exposed to the light of day.

The seal can be broken with the number of the name of the Specter and three items of power belonging to the spellcaster. As to the name of the Specter, Mispar Hechrachi is the most reliable or most usual…

The treasure hunters will probably have to search for Mispar Hechrachi in a search engine, which will teach them that it is the most common variety of gematria, the numerology applied to Hebrew letters. This information will prove useful later.

It should be an easy guess that the three items of power are the three charms belonging to the murderer.

The foregoing fragment is also accompanied by this puzzle. This puzzle requires that the treasure hunters have found at least one charm for each of the fellowship because they must recognize the nine symbols (mascots) on the puzzle.

An earlier message in this quest indicated the haunts of each of the fellowship. The treasure hunters can search these locations for the charms, each of which bears the mascot of its owner.

By overlaying the three correct keys atop the three lines of text, the entire message is revealed: ‘Reach beneath a blue blossom before the seat of the yellow-tongued beast.’ The yellow-tongued beast is the fire in the fireplace, and the blue blossom is one of many ornaments woven into the hearth rug. Underneath is the next clue.